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Coolblade

Coolblade

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With apologies for any repetitive aspects, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Ndiaye home and away last season - and wanted him to stay - but:
  • In a lower division, Ndiaye scored less that one goal in three games (hardly setting the world on fire). There was no guarantee he would lift his game as necessary to star in the Prem next season. Especially as he's 23 so not a very young kid like Osula - who could yet develop into a fantastic player.
  • Every Premiership scout has watched Ndiaye many times and we have had minimal interest (modest offer from Everton?) suggesting no Prem club rates him that highly. Compare this to Kyle W who was snapped up after playing just 8 games. If any established Prem team had showed interest Ndiaye would have gone like a shot
  • If he wanted to leave for Marseille (and he has continually refused a new contract for over a year) then we would have a disinterested player for 4 months (trying desperately hard to avoid injury) before signing a pre contract on Jan 1st and leaving us for nothing.
  • Instead of that poor disheartening scenario we have the ability to bring in (say) four £5m players who want to play for us and give us an all round stronger squad (and my god we need it). Happily, we didn't sell late on transfer day (as we have before) so have a few weeks to buy these players too.
  • I have heard repeated suggestions that Ndiaye was our best player last season and our only Prem class performer. I disagree. I think we have only one definite Prem quality player, in Anel, who performed incredibly strongly against both Man City (especially compared to Ndiaye) and Spurs (which ensured Ndiaye's awesome solo goal won us the match). I also think Baldock has been fantastic defensively and defended better against Grealish than almost any Prem full back last season.
  • Just as a last thought, my fave player of the last decade remains Didzy. Like Ndiaye he could fluff clear chances , but his ability to transition play to our attack was both stronger and much more varied than Ndiaye. A genuine Rolls Royce player. And similarly is now playing for his boyhood team - albeit much later in his career. I wish them both very well and look forward to our new signings with hope - although not much expectation!
Hecky has been an absolute star since his arrival as manager despite fans strong reservations about his appointment - and shows much more modesty and professionalism than Wilder (and arguably better tactical acumen). Let's make sure we all get behind him and the eleven players on the pitch regardless of our personal opinions. The team needs us!
 

Oooookay then.....moving on.

By any chance were you in the "He's lazy, all he does is score goals" camp when we sold James Beattie to Stoke?

A lot of your points aren't balance, they're deflection and denial.

would-you-just-gcs05c.jpg
 
Last edited:
Coolblade said:
With apologies for any repetitive aspects, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Ndiaye home and away last season - and wanted him to stay - but:
  • In a lower division, Ndiaye scored less that one goal in three games (hardly setting the world on fire). There was no guarantee he would lift his game as necessary to star in the Prem next season. Especially as he's 23 so not a very young kid like Osula - who could yet develop into a fantastic player.
  • Every Premiership scout has watched Ndiaye many times and we have had minimal interest (modest offer from Everton?) suggesting no Prem club rates him that highly. Compare this to Kyle W who was snapped up after playing just 8 games. If any established Prem team had showed interest Ndiaye would have gone like a shot
  • If he wanted to leave for Marseille (and he has continually refused a new contract for over a year) then we would have a disinterested player for 4 months (trying desperately hard to avoid injury) before signing a pre contract on Jan 1st and leaving us for nothing.
  • Instead of that poor disheartening scenario we have the ability to bring in (say) four £5m players who want to play for us and give us an all round stronger squad (and my god we need it). Happily, we didn't sell late on transfer day (as we have before) so have a few weeks to buy these players too.
  • I have heard repeated suggestions that Ndiaye was our best player last season and our only Prem class performer. I disagree. I think we have only one definite Prem quality player, in Anel, who performed incredibly strongly against both Man City (especially compared to Ndiaye) and Spurs (which ensured Ndiaye's awesome solo goal won us the match). I also think Baldock has been fantastic defensively and defended better against Grealish than almost any Prem full back last season.
  • Just as a last thought, my fave player of the last decade remains Didzy. Like Ndiaye he could fluff clear chances , but his ability to transition play to our attack was both stronger and much more varied than Ndiaye. A genuine Rolls Royce player. And similarly is now playing for his boyhood team - albeit much later in his career. I wish them both very well and look forward to our new signings with hope - although not much expectation!
Hecky has been an absolute star since his arrival as manager despite fans strong reservations about his appointment - and shows much more modesty and professionalism than Wilder (and arguably better tactical acumen). Let's make sure we all get behind him and the eleven players on the pitch regardless of our personal opinions. The team needs us!
Click to expand...
Well thought through and expressed. Thank you 🙏
There were too much over the top views on how good he may have been in the PL.
 
Coolblade said:
With apologies for any repetitive aspects, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Ndiaye home and away last season - and wanted him to stay - but:
  • In a lower division, Ndiaye scored less that one goal in three games (hardly setting the world on fire). There was no guarantee he would lift his game as necessary to star in the Prem next season. Especially as he's 23 so not a very young kid like Osula - who could yet develop into a fantastic player.
  • Every Premiership scout has watched Ndiaye many times and we have had minimal interest (modest offer from Everton?) suggesting no Prem club rates him that highly. Compare this to Kyle W who was snapped up after playing just 8 games. If any established Prem team had showed interest Ndiaye would have gone like a shot
  • If he wanted to leave for Marseille (and he has continually refused a new contract for over a year) then we would have a disinterested player for 4 months (trying desperately hard to avoid injury) before signing a pre contract on Jan 1st and leaving us for nothing.
  • Instead of that poor disheartening scenario we have the ability to bring in (say) four £5m players who want to play for us and give us an all round stronger squad (and my god we need it). Happily, we didn't sell late on transfer day (as we have before) so have a few weeks to buy these players too.
  • I have heard repeated suggestions that Ndiaye was our best player last season and our only Prem class performer. I disagree. I think we have only one definite Prem quality player, in Anel, who performed incredibly strongly against both Man City (especially compared to Ndiaye) and Spurs (which ensured Ndiaye's awesome solo goal won us the match). I also think Baldock has been fantastic defensively and defended better against Grealish than almost any Prem full back last season.
  • Just as a last thought, my fave player of the last decade remains Didzy. Like Ndiaye he could fluff clear chances , but his ability to transition play to our attack was both stronger and much more varied than Ndiaye. A genuine Rolls Royce player. And similarly is now playing for his boyhood team - albeit much later in his career. I wish them both very well and look forward to our new signings with hope - although not much expectation!
Hecky has been an absolute star since his arrival as manager despite fans strong reservations about his appointment - and shows much more modesty and professionalism than Wilder (and arguably better tactical acumen). Let's make sure we all get behind him and the eleven players on the pitch regardless of our personal opinions. The team needs us!
Click to expand...
I agree with your sentiment to get behind Hecky and the boys, but the idea that Illy wasn’t our best, most productive player, is for the birds.
The stats don’t lie, he scored and created way more goals than anyone else, and some of the team have admitted on other occasions that a popular tactic was give it Illy and see what magic, he could work, and he often did.Quite frankly it was his assists, goals, yards gained up the pitch, and mayhem in the opposition’s defence, that got us up.Everyone could see that.He was once in a generation player, and the best I’ve seen at the Lane, since Currie in the last 60 years.Didzy better, do me a favour!
Yes, let’s get behind `Hecky and the boys, and we still do have good players left, if they don’t get sold before the deadline day, that is.But, let’s not kid ourselves, it was always going to be a hell of a task keeping us up this season, with Illy, in the side, without him it has just got so much harder.
 
Hahaha I wondered how long it would take for stuff like this to come out. The next one will be - "we may actually be a better, more well rounded team without him as we'll have to play differently".
 
Coolblade said:
With apologies for any repetitive aspects, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Ndiaye home and away last season - and wanted him to stay - but:
  • In a lower division, Ndiaye scored less that one goal in three games (hardly setting the world on fire). There was no guarantee he would lift his game as necessary to star in the Prem next season. Especially as he's 23 so not a very young kid like Osula - who could yet develop into a fantastic player.
  • Every Premiership scout has watched Ndiaye many times and we have had minimal interest (modest offer from Everton?) suggesting no Prem club rates him that highly. Compare this to Kyle W who was snapped up after playing just 8 games. If any established Prem team had showed interest Ndiaye would have gone like a shot
  • If he wanted to leave for Marseille (and he has continually refused a new contract for over a year) then we would have a disinterested player for 4 months (trying desperately hard to avoid injury) before signing a pre contract on Jan 1st and leaving us for nothing.
  • Instead of that poor disheartening scenario we have the ability to bring in (say) four £5m players who want to play for us and give us an all round stronger squad (and my god we need it). Happily, we didn't sell late on transfer day (as we have before) so have a few weeks to buy these players too.
  • I have heard repeated suggestions that Ndiaye was our best player last season and our only Prem class performer. I disagree. I think we have only one definite Prem quality player, in Anel, who performed incredibly strongly against both Man City (especially compared to Ndiaye) and Spurs (which ensured Ndiaye's awesome solo goal won us the match). I also think Baldock has been fantastic defensively and defended better against Grealish than almost any Prem full back last season.
  • Just as a last thought, my fave player of the last decade remains Didzy. Like Ndiaye he could fluff clear chances , but his ability to transition play to our attack was both stronger and much more varied than Ndiaye. A genuine Rolls Royce player. And similarly is now playing for his boyhood team - albeit much later in his career. I wish them both very well and look forward to our new signings with hope - although not much expectation!
Hecky has been an absolute star since his arrival as manager despite fans strong reservations about his appointment - and shows much more modesty and professionalism than Wilder (and arguably better tactical acumen). Let's make sure we all get behind him and the eleven players on the pitch regardless of our personal opinions. The team needs us!
Click to expand...
Disagree- Ndiaye was our best player. His work rate on and off the ball was the single main reason we got promoted. Should have been handled much better.

Was thoroughly entertaining to watch and will be sorely missed.
 
I agree we need to move on and we are certainly not a one man team.

But one man can often be the difference and often last season it was him. A spark, good work off the ball.
Yes he only scored 15 but he also assisted nearly as many as well.

He will be missed no doubt about it. But hopefully with who we bring in we can still make the team be threatening and competitive enough to pick up points.
We have been unfortunate that the club that really he wanted to go to have come in for him. I dare say aside from really big clubs I reckon he'd have stayed and signed.
 
Coolblade said:
With apologies for any repetitive aspects, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Ndiaye home and away last season - and wanted him to stay - but:
  • In a lower division, Ndiaye scored less that one goal in three games (hardly setting the world on fire). There was no guarantee he would lift his game as necessary to star in the Prem next season. Especially as he's 23 so not a very young kid like Osula - who could yet develop into a fantastic player.
  • Every Premiership scout has watched Ndiaye many times and we have had minimal interest (modest offer from Everton?) suggesting no Prem club rates him that highly. Compare this to Kyle W who was snapped up after playing just 8 games. If any established Prem team had showed interest Ndiaye would have gone like a shot
  • If he wanted to leave for Marseille (and he has continually refused a new contract for over a year) then we would have a disinterested player for 4 months (trying desperately hard to avoid injury) before signing a pre contract on Jan 1st and leaving us for nothing.
  • Instead of that poor disheartening scenario we have the ability to bring in (say) four £5m players who want to play for us and give us an all round stronger squad (and my god we need it). Happily, we didn't sell late on transfer day (as we have before) so have a few weeks to buy these players too.
  • I have heard repeated suggestions that Ndiaye was our best player last season and our only Prem class performer. I disagree. I think we have only one definite Prem quality player, in Anel, who performed incredibly strongly against both Man City (especially compared to Ndiaye) and Spurs (which ensured Ndiaye's awesome solo goal won us the match). I also think Baldock has been fantastic defensively and defended better against Grealish than almost any Prem full back last season.
  • Just as a last thought, my fave player of the last decade remains Didzy. Like Ndiaye he could fluff clear chances , but his ability to transition play to our attack was both stronger and much more varied than Ndiaye. A genuine Rolls Royce player. And similarly is now playing for his boyhood team - albeit much later in his career. I wish them both very well and look forward to our new signings with hope - although not much expectation!
Hecky has been an absolute star since his arrival as manager despite fans strong reservations about his appointment - and shows much more modesty and professionalism than Wilder (and arguably better tactical acumen). Let's make sure we all get behind him and the eleven players on the pitch regardless of our personal opinions. The team needs us!
Click to expand...
Illy and Osula in the same breath, give over.
 
Thanks cool we all need positivity at this time, as we try to get over the loss of our most skilful player. some posters only read a few words before leaping to respond. it’s amusing that a reasoned response gets an immediate accusation of insanity. oh the irony
 
Barmyblade said:
Thanks cool we all need positivity at this time, as we try to get over the loss of our most skilful player. some posters only read a few words before leaping to respond. it’s amusing that a reasoned response gets an immediate accusation of insanity. oh the irony
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I think we've all probably tried to convince ourselves that he wasn't as good as we thought in order to lessen the blow of him leaving. However he was our best player over the course of the season and it wasn't even close.

I get the need for positivity and if truth be told we'd backed ourselves into a corner to the point where it was completely in Ndiaye's hands whether he stayed or left, we probably couldn't have stopped it in the end unless we paid Ndiaye significantly more than our other players, something we've avoided doing up to this point for anyone.
 

coolasanidiot said:
Disagree- Ndiaye was our best player. His work rate on and off the ball was the single main reason we got promoted. Should have been handled much better.

Was thoroughly entertaining to watch and will be sorely missed.
Click to expand...
How could it have been 'handled better'?
 
Deflection, deflection, deflection.

Moving on and supporting the team is a must but you have to understand that football fans aren't all the same. Different ages, experiences etc.

I probably react a bit more calmly to stuff than I used to.

People will want answers, some won't.

It should be obvious that losing Ndiaye like this with a weak squad so close to the start of the season, and with a tight budget, is going to get the natives restless.

Let's be honest, the only way the atmosphere improves now is by seeing a number of credible players arriving pretty sharpish.

Pretending Ili wasn't all that isn't going to cut it.
 
Coolblade said:
I have heard repeated suggestions that Ndiaye was our best player last season and our only Prem class performer. I disagree. I think we have only one definite Prem quality player, in Anel, who performed incredibly strongly against both Man City (especially compared to Ndiaye) and Spurs (which ensured Ndiaye's awesome solo goal won us the match). I also think Baldock has been fantastic defensively and defended better against Grealish than almost any Prem full back last season.
Click to expand...
I'd counter this with the argument that it's far easier to look good as a defender against much better opposition than it is a forward. For a forward to stand out in a game they need the ball. Defenders don't.

In the City game Ndiaye didn't see much of the ball, when he gets the ball it's therefore 10x more important that he does something positive with it. Against Spurs he managed to do this despite only being on the pitch for part of the game.
 
Harrisblade said:
How could it have been 'handled better'?
Click to expand...
We had him on 4K a week - very early on - the money should have been quadrupled. Forget the company spin bollox - they've been cheap skates with him.

He virtually single handedly took us to the Prem - circa 180 million better off.

The whole situation has been handled appallingly- the minute we won promotion we should have given him £5 million at least.
 
Coolblade said:
With apologies for any repetitive aspects, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Ndiaye home and away last season - and wanted him to stay - but:
  • In a lower division, Ndiaye scored less that one goal in three games (hardly setting the world on fire). There was no guarantee he would lift his game as necessary to star in the Prem next season. Especially as he's 23 so not a very young kid like Osula - who could yet develop into a fantastic player.
  • Every Premiership scout has watched Ndiaye many times and we have had minimal interest (modest offer from Everton?) suggesting no Prem club rates him that highly. Compare this to Kyle W who was snapped up after playing just 8 games. If any established Prem team had showed interest Ndiaye would have gone like a shot
  • If he wanted to leave for Marseille (and he has continually refused a new contract for over a year) then we would have a disinterested player for 4 months (trying desperately hard to avoid injury) before signing a pre contract on Jan 1st and leaving us for nothing.
  • Instead of that poor disheartening scenario we have the ability to bring in (say) four £5m players who want to play for us and give us an all round stronger squad (and my god we need it). Happily, we didn't sell late on transfer day (as we have before) so have a few weeks to buy these players too.
  • I have heard repeated suggestions that Ndiaye was our best player last season and our only Prem class performer. I disagree. I think we have only one definite Prem quality player, in Anel, who performed incredibly strongly against both Man City (especially compared to Ndiaye) and Spurs (which ensured Ndiaye's awesome solo goal won us the match). I also think Baldock has been fantastic defensively and defended better against Grealish than almost any Prem full back last season.
  • Just as a last thought, my fave player of the last decade remains Didzy. Like Ndiaye he could fluff clear chances , but his ability to transition play to our attack was both stronger and much more varied than Ndiaye. A genuine Rolls Royce player. And similarly is now playing for his boyhood team - albeit much later in his career. I wish them both very well and look forward to our new signings with hope - although not much expectation!
Hecky has been an absolute star since his arrival as manager despite fans strong reservations about his appointment - and shows much more modesty and professionalism than Wilder (and arguably better tactical acumen). Let's make sure we all get behind him and the eleven players on the pitch regardless of our personal opinions. The team needs us!
Click to expand...
Is this a joke? Yeah I agree Ili was 23 and hasn't played in the Premier league but come on if he wasn't scoring he was getting assists don't forget he has only played 18 month or so of first team football the first six month he couldn't last more than 60mins without cramping up. That's your reason why no big Prem teams were in for him, he wasn't proven, that said those who watched him knew he was our most technically gifted player. Osula and Jebbo don't make me laugh they don't look like scoring whatever the opposition surely you don't believe they are Premier league ready, for all his skill that was still a question mark over Ili? We don't have a striker at the club that you could expect to get more than 10 goals except maybe a fit McBurnie anything else said about other players and positions is just fluff to soften the blow.
 
coolasanidiot said:
Disagree- Ndiaye was our best player. His work rate on and off the ball was the single main reason we got promoted. Should have been handled much better.

Was thoroughly entertaining to watch and will be sorely missed.
Click to expand...
How could the club manage the situation better? The player was determined to go ! Tried to get him to sign a new contract when he showed real talent that was early last season before the Serb was sacked.
 
Smirth said:
Hahaha I wondered how long it would take for stuff like this to come out. The next one will be - "we may actually be a better, more well rounded team without him as we'll have to play differently".
Click to expand...
...well it is a possibility ! What is important is how better the squad may be if the money is used.
Had he been injured we had little else, but now we may have better depth.
We will all see soon !
 
coolasanidiot said:
We had him on 4K a week - very early on - the money should have been quadrupled. Forget the company spin bollox - they've been cheap skates with him.

He virtually single handedly took us to the Prem - circa 180 million better off.

The whole situation has been handled appallingly- the minute we won promotion we should have given him £5 million at least.
Click to expand...
We might well have done that in a new contract - but if you remember, his agent (or Illi himself) refused to discuss one.
So in the end, he will have got the same bonus as the rest of the squad.
 
You could replace the name ‘Brooks’ in many of the sentences written about Ndiaye on here.

We sold him and it led to one of the best eras in Blades history. Maybe this new influx of unknown foreign talent spells a new era of success for the club. If we can replicate half of what teams like Brentford or Brighton have done the Ndiaye saga will be long forgotten
 
bongleblade said:
You could replace the name ‘Brooks’ in many of the sentences written about Ndiaye on here.

We sold him and it led to one of the best eras in Blades history. Maybe this new influx of unknown foreign talent spells a new era of success for the club. If we can replicate half of what teams like Brentford or Brighton have done the Ndiaye saga will be long forgotten
Click to expand...
We have 2 recruitment personnel. They have 20x that. We are trying to do what they do on the incredibly cheap.
 
As I said on another thread, he may well have ended up being another Taarabt, no guarantee he'd make the next level up.
 
Snowflake said:
...well it is a possibility ! What is important is how better the squad may be if the money is used.
Had he been injured we had little else, but now we may have better depth.
We will all see soon !
Click to expand...
We've sold our best player, our most attacking and creative threat. We will not be able to replace him with anything close to what he offers, especially with 15m.
 
We're a club that generally doesn't know what to do when it has some rare talent on its hands and has been the case in the past.

It was pretty much etched in stone that Ndiaye was going to leave at some point in the next 12 months regardless of how we performed as a team and is something we'd have no choice but to face into. He could be the next Mbappe or the next Lys Mousset. Who knows but he's the most talented footballer I've ever seen play for us and on current form and ability, his ceiling is higher than ours is as a club.

The one crumb of comfort is that if we'd been relegated and he'd have left at the end of the season, we'd have had an even bigger job on to replace him than we do now. At least as a Premier League club, we're more of an attractive proposition for any new players than one that's been relegated and lost its best players.

I hope to god that we've already started identifying replacements for Berge and Anel too because it'll be Basham and Fleck getting another year otherwise.
 

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